Pentimento Love
by Amanda on June 2, 2010
My love for stationery/gift stores knows no bounds. I could spend an entire afternoon peeking in and between shelves packed with notebooks and hand crafted ribbons. As I have shared in the past, books and pencils always stir up feelings of happiness for me. I’m not sure whether it’s a notion of childhood nostalgia remembering back to the days of the pure glee I got when receiving a new lined journal or whether it just makes me feel like a smarty pants to own diaries filled with hand written scribbles.
One of the stores that makes my heart skip a beat in Sydney is Newtown’s Pentimento. As you can see from the pictures, it’s filled with gorgeous trinkets and hand made wares. There are two walls dedicated to cards and notebooks from France and Japan, while the other houses arty books and quirky ceramics. Those milk bottles are made out of fine porcelain and oh so delicate. A friend of mine works there, so it’s always nice to pop in and have a chat too.
If you ever find yourself in Sydney, make sure you pay a visit to Newtown. It’s bold, colourful and full of gorgeous little stores like this one.
All pictures were taken with a Yashica FX3 camera using that crazy Natura 1600 film.
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Confession: I buy beautiful journals and never write in them. I’m always confounded as to what to write that would be worthy of such a beautiful home. I have dozens. They remain blank.
When you go into stores to photograph, do you feel silly? Your friend works at this store, so you were visiting, but in other stores in other towns or neighborhoods? I was taking pictures at the fruit stand the other day and the woman at the cash register was looking at me like I’d lost my mind to be taking pictures of cabbage. So what’s your secret to avoiding the silly?
perfection.
Oh Carmela, don’t leave your beautiful journals untouched, it’s such a shame! Mind you, I know exactly why you’re doing it, but only the other day I was writing on my site about the excellent Dan Price, author of How To Make A Journal Of Your Life and, quite frankly, it’s much more thrilling to fill a journal than just to buy it, as Dan says! Be brave, jump in! Your life is worth recording!
And Amanda, beautiful pics as usual! Mega-mega-drool! You’d love a little stationery shop in Paris I always visit… pretty stuff to the ceiling and that lovely hand-made look to boot!
looks like a piece of heaven to explore
Oh my! I think I could be lost in their forever! I just love stationary and paper stores. Oh the beauty of pretty little journals, ribbons and pins.
I have a gaggle of notebooks, all used for different things. I find myself constantly in need of pen and paper, so I always have tons of notebooks. Never any official use, just something to jot down whatever I currently need paper for.
I agree with the pencil and books thing…sometimes I go into bookstores just for the smell. :)
Really cool items in that shop, made more lovely with your great photography.
wow! i wish i had a wonderful, dreamy store like that to visit! I would be in heaven! i absolutely love journals. i have few and i am planning on handing all of my journals over to my children when i am old and grey. i have no discipline as to when i write and how often, i just do it when i feel moved to. i write about the everyday ordinary things that go on in our daily life. i never write anything that i wouldn’t want another person to see..that way i never ever have to worry about misplacing it!! i think my kids or grandkids will get a kick out these journals one day..i know if i had a journal that my grandmother wrote about her daily life, i would cherish it!!
ah, stationery shops… i’m the same – i don’t know how many notebooks i’ve fallen for, purchased and not written in because they’re too pristine =)
out of a newborn curiosity: why is the natura 1600 crazy? i just inherited an old analogue slr camera; a canon is-1000. i’t my first slr camera and also the first time i’m using film since the compact i had as a teenager – and now there’s suddenly a whole new world to explore!
Those milk bottles are beautiful! And like everyone else here, I also adore paper stores.
In New York, there are actually fewer paper stores because of Kate’s Paperie (which has a real monopoly on paper by the pound), but you can buy fantastic large paper at any of the wonderful art stores. I love to go and just look around at all of the beautiful patterns…
That’s my favourite shop and has been for many, many years. I hadn’t visited in about five years until about two months ago. I saw one journal, and had to have it.
It had my heart so much that before long I needed another.
They’re beautiful. x
Oh Carmela…I think there’s a post in that question! hee hee
I do feel silly and it takes being quite stealth. Doesn’t help when you have a noisy camera like mine lol
I have lots of journals that I don’t write in too!
Hi Pia love xx
Steph, thank you. Stationery store in Paris= my heaven.
Char and Ashley, it’s more than just a stationery store too and that’s what I love. They have nick nacks and handbags and lots of naughty spendy things.
Veronica, ha don’t we all.
Brittany, are you a paper sniffer too? I’m constantly smelling things.
Thanks Shanon :)
Bonnie, I agree. When I write in journals and books, I always think about my future children or grand children finding them and reading them. Is that weird? lol
Beauty, oh congrats! I’m so pleased! That particular film is kinda crazy because it’s such a high ISO and I really shouldn’t have used it outside in the sun lol
Even indoors, I found the colours to be quite wonky. I need to use it in lower light to see how it goes. It’s all the way from Japan too so it’s kind of special.
Fuji and Kodak make great films and if you want to try some BW, you can’t go past Ilford. :)
Erika, that really surprises me about NY. I would have thought it would be crawling with those kinds of stores. I always love looking at the Kate’s Paperie website.
Chantelle, you should visit more! However, I bet I know why you don’t. Newtown isn’t exactly easy to get to or park in. I only ever visited on my way home from work if I fluked a park at the back Franklins car park.
Thanks for all the great comments, lovelies!
thank you for the tips amanda! i definitely want to try bw. i’m struggling a bit to find someone to help out; today i had this totally hopeless conversation with a guy in a photography shop – you know the kind of guy that thinks digital is the only way to go and isn’t interested in helping because you’re a girl… but then i visited an italian guy in a tiny shop that’s brimming with vintage cameras. he cleaned my camera’s filter in a jiffy and told me he did the best developing in town =)
and, um, i meant an olympus is-1000, not canon… (i just finished my tax report and lost my last brain cells somewhere in the process) *sigh*